He hasn’t played in the NBA for three seasons, but people are already telling their favorite Allen Iversonstories after SLAM made the announcement his retirement was eminent. Here’s how Twitter responded.

One of the more interesting subplots to AI’s retirement three years after-the-fact, is the hyper-vigilent pro- and anti-Iverson arguments many made throughout his career have continued, and the younger generation is updating them for contemporary tastes. The analytics movement means we can hear all about Iverson’s career 42 percent shooting and turnovers, but there are enough people still around the league who grew up on AI in the late 90’s and early 00’s to understand that he was the sum of a much larger influence than numbers on a spreadsheet can represent.

He was a symbol of young, brash, aggressive player in the post-MJ world. Iverson was an icon in the truest sense of that word. He changed fashion and culture in the NBA and made tattoos the de rigueur for young NBA players hoping to translate with the fans and the street the way AI did.

One of the more curious things we’ve noticed going through Twitter this morning was the lack of reactions from current NBA players. This despite how omnipresent Iverson still is in today’s game.

Sure the game itself has changed â€” no more hand-checking defenders while offense is geared towards the highest possible efficiency, a characteristic that would be considered the antithesis of Iverson’s gambling game â€” but the style and the culture surrounding the game is a byproduct of AI more than any other player of his generation.

Here are some of our favorite talking points, arguments, paeans, exclamations, insults and memories of The Answer after the news of his official retirement was revealed:

It's end the end of an era: I'm being told that Allen Iverson will officially announce his retirement this week. http://t.co/ms4ndt1zKP